Barbara Kronlins was born in Detroit, Michigan. She started drawing and painting, and traveling in her early teens, and after graduating from Western Michigan University, where she majored in English and Art. During the years Barbara lived in New York, she discovered the work of Hannelore Baron, Kurt Schwitters, and William Dole, who was especially inspiring, and became intrigued by the possibilities of collage and mixed media. Following unashamedly in the footsteps of Schwitters she started collecting discarded paper scraps and other materials from sidewalks, dumpsters and where ever she could find them and began to incorporate them in her paintings. After moving to San Francisco, her work gradually evolved into being solely collage based, without being grounded in painting. Even though, traces of drawing and painting are still evident in Barbara's collages, she essentially “draws” and “paints” with scissors and glue. Her art aims to achieve a formal still point in a visual field built on the detritus of the everyday.